LGBTQIA2S+ Centered Therapy for Grief & Loss

Looking to start therapy for depression? You are in the right place.

We’re right on the Lansing-East Lansing line, just minutes from MSU, and we also see clients virtually across Michigan.

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A Message About Us

We prioritize working with LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC communities. About 96% of our team hold LGBTQIA2S+ and other marginalized identities.

When you start therapy here, your therapist already has experience working with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, trans, non-binary, Two-Spirit, or still figuring it out.

If you are Black, Indigenous, brown, or another person of color, you’re covered too. Your therapist may not share your exact background. But our whole team trains continually in anti-racist, anti-oppressive care, and we hand-picked that training ourselves.

If you are neurodivergent, you already know your brain is one of a kind. We have many ways to make therapy fit how you actually think and feel. And there’s a good chance your therapist is neurodivergent too.

Our therapists are here because they care about working with

Grief & loss

Grief doesn’t follow a schedule, and it doesn’t ask permission. It can arrive after a death or after a loss. It can come in waves or settle in quietly and stay. However it shows up for you, you don’t have to carry it alone, and you don’t have to carry it in any particular way.

Grief isn’t only about death, and it isn’t only for the “big” losses. People come to us grieving:

The death of someone they love
A loss others don’t fully see: a pet, a pregnancy, a friendship, an estrangement
The end of a relationship or a marriage
A loss tied to identity, coming out, transition, or a family who couldn’t stay
Anticipatory grief, the grieving that starts before a loss is complete
A diagnosis, a capability, a future they thought they’d have

If it’s a loss to you, those feelings are valid.

What grief can feel like

Grief looks different for everyone. Some of this may sound familiar:

Waves of sadness that come without warning
Feeling numb, or strangely fine, and wondering if something’s wrong with you
Exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix
Trouble concentrating, or a fog that won’t lift
Anger, guilt, or relief you didn’t expect, and aren’t sure what to do with
Missing someone in your body, not just your mind
Feeling like the world moved on while you’re still standing still

None of it means you’re grieving wrong. There’s no correct way to feel, and no timeline you’re supposed to be following.

Compounded Loss

Grief is heavy on its own. It gets heavier when you’re already carrying the daily strain of moving through a world that wasn’t built with your wellness in mind. Many of the people we work with are grieving while also managing the heaviness and exhaustion of minority stress, which leads to mourning while depleted and trying to survive.

That plays out in many ways. A chosen-family member dies, and the loss is not treated as the heartbreak it is. A partner passes, and the relationship is questioned instead of honored. A non-supportive family member dies, and you find yourself grieving someone who was not safe enough for you to be open with.

Many of us have experienced a number of losses, too often and too young. You are not alone, and there is support waiting for you.

Treatment

Grief work here isn’t built on a single method. It’s an integrated approach, shaped to fit the person in front of us rather than a formula. A few of the ideas that guide it:

Room to grieve, and room to rest. You don’t have to be actively grieving every moment to be doing it right. Part of the work is learning to move between leaning into your grief and stepping back from it, giving yourself permission to do both.

Staying connected. Healing doesn’t mean forgetting, or letting go, or “moving on.” It often means finding new ways to stay in a relationship with the person you lost, carrying their memory forward and integrating it into the life you keep living.

The whole of it. Grief touches everything: your body, your relationships, your sense of who you are and what comes next. We make space for the full range of how loss lands, not just the parts that are easy to name.

Grief isn’t a problem to be solved or a condition to be fixed. It’s something to be supported through, at your pace.

Katie Zicarelli Gesell is a dedicated grief therapist. She has the training and tools to support you.

Ready to begin?

Request an appointment and complete the form. It gives us what we need to get you started. We can usually book your first appointment within 2 business days of your request. And don’t worry, we know how much a good match matters, so we take your needs and preferences seriously.

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Want more Info? Check out our therapist bios or learn about our Payment Options.

Have questions? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions, or send us a message.

Crisis Lines

If you’re in crisis or need support right now, you don’t have to wait for an appointment.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.